April 02, 2013 02:46 AM CDTApril 02, 2013 02:46 AM CDTWriter: With 'absolutely no leverage,' Dallas Cowboys had no choice but to give in to Tony Romo's contract demands

Writer: With 'absolutely no leverage,' Dallas Cowboys had no choice but to give in to Tony Romo's contract demands

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Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo became the fifth-highest paid player in the NFL last month by signing a six-year, $108 million contract extension that will keep him in Dallas through 2019. He dropped out of the top five on Friday when Aaron Rodgers signed a five-year, $122 million extension ($18 million per year). Here are the five players in the league who make more per year than Romo (with rank, player, team, position, annual salary):

Plenty of observers have spent the past few days criticizing quarterback Tony Romo's play in light of the massive extension he signed with the Cowboys last week. The National Football Post's Joe Fortenbaugh was one of them.

"All this time I had been touting [Ravens quarterback Joe] Flacco's impressive roll of the dice when I really should have been lauding Romo’s tremendous
position of leverage," Fortenbaugh wrote. "Flacco turned down a contract extension offer from
the Ravens last summer, opting instead to play out the final year of
his deal in an attempt to boost his stock. The guy had to go out and win
the damn Super Bowl to land his monster payday.
All Romo had to do was sit and wait."

Though Fortenbaugh never says Romo was worth the money he got from Dallas, he makes the argument that the Cowboys were really in no position not to kneel to Romo's contract demands largely because they didn't have one very important trump card -- their franchise tag.

Fortenbaugh cited an NFL.com report that said the final year of Romo's contract wouldn't be voided until after the deadline for teams to place the franchise tag on players in 2014, effectively meaning the Cowboys had no way to keep Romo in town if he didn't sign an extension.

And with that piece of news in their back pocket, the Romo camp could let the Cowboys come to them.

"[The Cowboys] had absolutely no leverage whatsoever
in their negotiations with Romo," Fortenbaugh wrote. "If Dallas wanted to keep their
franchise quarterback in town past the 2013 season, they were going to
have to pony up. All Romo had to do was sit back and wait until he heard
the right number. Jerry Jones is offering $45 million guaranteed and
Romo wants more? Sorry, Mr. Jones, but Romo is less than one year away
from free agency, where he’d no doubt have multiple suitors interested
in signing him to a fat new contract. Pay up now or start looking for a
new quarterback later."

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